ShamWow Guy's Other Claim to Fame: Ex-Scientologist

Vince Offer Shlomi, the ShamWow pitchman who gained infamy after being arrested for badly beating a prostitute last month, is also a renegade ex-Scientologist, Gawker reports. Shlomi joined group in 1982, made connections with Scientology’s many entertainment-industry adherents, and found financing to start filming The Underground Comedy Movie, featuring such luminaries as Slash, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Joey Buttafuoco, in 1997.

Scientology, however, didn’t seem to like the project, and group officials began a smear campaign against Shlomi in 2004, eventually “convicting" him of unspecified charges in a Scientology court—featuring a 14-year-old judge—thus ousting him from the group and severing his Hollywood ties. Shlomi did eventually release his film and promoted it—like ShamWow—with infomercials, eventually selling 100,000 DVDs.
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